Life
1808-1895 [Robert Shipboy McAdam; occas. MacAdam]; b. High St., Belfast;
br. of James MacAdam, geologist; ed. Belfast Academical Institution; owned
and managed Soho Iron Foundry, Townsend St., with br. James; fluent in 13 languages; employed scholars
Aodh Mac Domhnaill and Art Mac Bionaid; fnd. and ed. Ulster Journal
of Archaeology, 1853-62; published ‘Six Hundred Gaelic Proverbs
Collected in Ulster’ in UJArch, 1858-1862; served as vice-president
of the Natural History and Philosophical Society (Belfast); organised
exhibition for British Association for the Advancement of Science; co-fnd.
Ulster Gaelic Soc., 1883; declared all his efforts to be motivated by
‘respect for [his] native country and love for the language’;
bur. family tomb in Knockbreda cemetery; material held
in Belfast Central Public Library. DIH OCIL
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Criticism
Breandain Ó Buachalla, I mBéal Feirtse Cois Cuain (1968).
Art[hur] J. Hughes, Robert Shipboy McAdam [sic]: His Life and Gaelic Proverb Collection (Belfast: IIS 1998).
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Notes
Kate Newmann, Dictionary of Ulster Biography (Belfast: QUB/IIS
1993), lists James McAdam (1801-1861), Belfast geologist and naturalist;
note BBC Northern Ireland documentary on MacAdam, April 1996; also Dr.
Art Hughes, lecture, ‘The Life and Legacy of Robert s. MacAdam’,
25 Jan. 1996, Linen Hall Library.
Belfast Central Library holds Bryson and MacAdam manuscripts, purchased from Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society in 1989. (See Rascal online.)
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)